ANAHEIM – When developer Bill Taormina set out to preserve
the Five Points Building, one of the few remaining historicFive Points Building

Built: Early 1920s by a German bakerSize: First floor, 4,000-square feet; second
floor, 3,500-square feet

Restoration cost: $2.2 million

History: The structure was originally a
bakery, and throughout the decades
included a gym, pager company, drug store,
discount electronics store and most
recently, a wig shop with upstairs
apartments.commercial structures in the city, he floated around the idea for
a roadhouse diner.

Roller-skating waitresses serving chow to hungry drivers may
not be so far off.

Taormina said there are negotiations to open a Ruby’s Diner in
the building’s first floor at 1128 W. Lincoln Ave., with resident
and office lofts above it.

The move is part of a larger approach by city officials to turn the
Five Points district – viewed as a gateway to downtown Anaheim
from the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway – into a mix of office buildings,
refurbished historic homes and new eateries, including a Subway
and Starbucks.

General contractors Lee Howard, left, and Curt
Vanderwest, right, discuss future plans for the
historic Five Points commercial building at 1128
W. Lincoln Blvd. in Anaheim. Developers plan to
convert the structure into a 1950’s theme diner.

Until then, the Five Points Building had been home to a wig shop and second-floor apartments, Bob Morris of the Anaheim
Historical Society said.The city in 2003 contracted Taormina to restore the structure, after his company had turned the historic downtown Kraemer
Building into apartments.

Morris, who lives near the Five Points project, said the preservation of the historic area with a jumble of new businesses shows
just how far it’s progressed.

“It can never be bad to have a Starbucks in your neighborhood,” he said.

He said the layout for the building, located on a pie-slice-shaped lot, is
being finalized, with the roof’s framing going up in a couple of weeks.
The businesses could open in a year.While the building is being preserved to its early-1920s look, only half
of its original wood is being salvaged, Taormina said.

The Anaheim Planning Commission this month approved the zoning for
the parking lot portion of the property.

A second project to refurbish residential homes next door to the Five
Points Building could begin in June.

Realtor Paul Kott has had his business in the neighborhood since 1993,
and purchased and revitalized seven properties over the last seven
years.

“This area about 10 years ago, when (the California Department of
Transportation) was widening the I-5, was a ghost town,” Kott said.

“The renaissance is finally taking place,” said Taormina, CEO of Clean City Inc., which started work on the Five Points
Building project 18 months ago.